The Cabinet on Wednesday reversed a decision to switch to wintertime, maintaining the daylight saving time (GMT+3), that has for past years been applied in summer, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Previous government regulations had designated the last Friday in March as the date to set clocks one hour forward, and the last Friday in October to revert to wintertime by setting clocks back.

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Samih Maaytah told The Jordan Times that the government has coordinated with Royal Jordanian (RJ) and other airlines before the decision was issued.

In a statement, RJ called on its passengers who hold tickets for travel between October 26, 2012 and March 30, 2013, to add one hour to the departure time mentioned on their tickets for travel from Jordanian airports or the arrival time to Jordanian airports, according to Jordan local time.

No explanation was given for the abrupt Cabinet decision, which moves Jordan to a different time zone, making the country join the GMT+3 zone which includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen, instead of the GMT+2 zone which includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey and Egypt.

The world is divided into 24 time zones and each is measured by the difference (in plus or minus hours) from Greenwich, London.

Tell us what you think. Should the government have cancelled winter? Should Jordan be aligned with gulf states or the Levant states? Do let us know your thoughts!